Whicker: A battle-tested Bradley emerges

Feb. 4, 2014

Updated 7:23 p.m.

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"People know I can fight now,” Tim Bradley says. “But this is for redemption. I want to be able to walk down the street without people saying I didn't really beat Pacquiao.” REED SAXON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

"People know I can fight now,” Tim Bradley says. “But this is for redemption. I want to be able to walk down the street without people saying I didn't really beat Pacquiao.” REED SAXON, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Harold Lederman, judging unofficially for HBO, gave Pacquiao 11 of the 12 rounds.

Bradley himself wasn't sure what to think. He had injured his foot in the second round and sprained his ankle in the fourth.

But when he walked to the corner after the final bell, he heard trainer Joel Diaz tell his seconds, “Get in there and pick him up. He won that fight.”

When the handlers put Bradley down, he began to draw hope.

“I said, I don't know, it's close, they probably won't give it to me,” Bradley said. “I felt I won it. But I wouldn't have been hurt about it if I'd lost. I would have accepted it.”

Buffer announced the first card: 115-113, favor of Pacquiao.

“I said, OK, I told you it was close,” Bradley said.

Buffer announced the second card: 115-113, favor of Bradley.

Bradley then put his hands up.

Buffer announced the third card, again 115-113 for “the new welterweight champion of the world …”

And Bradley had become the first man to beat Pacquiao in nearly seven years.

That was on June 9, 2012.

Much has happened since.

The feeling that Bradley has taken a giant career break and consolidated it, and the fact that Pacquiao is now 36 and somewhat minimized, has created the Bradley-Pacquiao rematch, at the scene of the original crime, on April 12.

The winner will likely meet Juan Manuel Marquez, provided Marquez beats an unspecified and presumably very beatable opponent in Mexico.

“The first time they fought, it opened at 9 to 1 because nobody knew who Bradley was,” Arum said Tuesday. “Now it's virtually even money, 3 to 2 either way. This is not the same Tim Bradley. He had a magnificent 2013.”

Indeed, Bradley deserved the Fighter of the Year Award that Floyd Mayweather Jr. received.

For one, Bradley survived Ruslan Provodnikov in what the Boxing Writers designated the Fight of the Year. Then Bradley turned craftsman when he decisioned Marquez.

The silly abuse that greeted Bradley, after that cockeyed judging call, has dissipated. After all, he didn't score the fight. Judges Duane Ford and C.J. Ross were the ones who voted for Bradley, and Ross has since been suspended for her comical opinion that Canelo Alvarez had earned a draw with Mayweather.

“People know I can fight now,” Bradley said. “But this is for redemption. I want to be able to walk down the street without people saying I didn't really beat Pacquiao.”

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, had dismissed Bradley as a better athlete than boxer. That was before Roach sat in Provodnikov's corner last March and saw Bradley endure brain-threatening shots, one knockdown and one near-knockdown — and still win.

“He's a much-improved fighter,” Roach said Tuesday. “Manny is going to have to fight very well in order to beat him.”

Or beat him again.

“He can punch,” Bradley said. “What was so special about him was that when he threw combinations, every punch was a death blow. Sometimes, it's 1-2, and the left is the much better punch, but everything Manny threw was just so crisp.

“Still, after the first round, I came back to the corner and said, ‘This guy is the best in the business? I can compete with him.' You think you're fighting a giant sometimes, but I knew I could do what I wanted. Then, second round, foot injury. Fourth round, ankle injury. I could have laid down. Hey, I went to the press conference in a wheelchair, dude.”

Before that fight, Bradley needled Pacquiao for being “old and tired.” What Bradley says now is less outlandish, but more relevant.

“He fought smart against (Brandon) Rios,” Bradley said, referring to a near-shutout last November, “but he did things I'd never seen him do. He fought off his back foot a lot. I never saw him do that before. And then he didn't knock him out. That's the compassionate Manny.

“We were on a show the other night face to face. I couldn't even get him to say he would knock me out. That's why I think he has lost the killer instinct.”

He is not alone, which is why Arum thinks this fight has a chance to hit a million pay-per-views. The first one drew 900,000.

“The people who stand to gain or lose in this fight (bookmakers) think it will be a close fight,” Arum said. “Promoters are always going to tell you that. But you can't believe what they say.”

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